If you're looking for guidance in applying Tennessee's Rules of Professional Conduct to the technology you use in your daily practice, a new TennBarU online course could help. The interactive text format offers a lively learning experience, with scenarios that relate to the challenges you face.

TODAY'S OPINIONSClick on the category of your choice to view summaries of today’s opinions from that court, or other body. A link at the end of each case summary will let you download the full opinion in PDF format. To search all opinions in the TBALink database or to obtain a text version of each opinion, go to our OpinionSearch page. If you have forgotten your password or need to obtain a password, you can look it up on TBALink at the TBA's Membership Central.

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Mary Ann Stackhouse, Chief Deputy Law Director and Robert C. McConkey III, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the Appellee, Knox County, Tennessee.

Judge: LEE

This case presents the issue of the applicability of Tenn. Code Ann. section 8-8-302 to a suit against a county government based on the failure of one or more of its deputy sheriffs to perform an administrative task. Ms. Swanson applied for a job with a hospital, and at the request of the hospital, the county sheriff's department issued a criminal background report on Ms. Swanson which
contained some erroneous information. The sheriff's department corrected and reissued the report
but failed to send the hospital a letter of explanation. Ms Swanson sued the county for damages pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. section 8-8-302 . The trial court granted the county's motion for summary judgment. Upon review, we affirm. Ms. Swanson's suit for the "inaction" of various sheriff's deputies is a suit for negligence, which is controlled by the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act, not Tenn. Code Ann. section 8-8-301, et seq. No relief is available under Tenn. Code Ann. section 8-8- 302, because the "act" complained of, i.e. failure to write an explanatory letter, is not an intentional act of misconduct for which the statute affords relief.

Robert E. Cooper, Attorney General and Reporter; Sophia S. Lee, Assistant Attorney General; and C. Phillip Bivens, District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge: WELLES

The Petitioner, Edward Ray Armstrong, appeals as of right from the judgment of the Dyer County Circuit Court denying post-conviction relief. In 2006, the Petitioner pled guilty as a Range I, standard offender to theft of property valued at $1000 or more but less than $10,000, a Class D felony. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed a three-year sentence. On appeal, the Petitioner argues that he received the ineffective assistance of counsel due to trial counsel's failure to subpoena his medical records and to adequately prepare for trial. After a review of the
record, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The Memphis Shelby County Anti-Predatory Lending Coalition will target predatory lending practices in the face of an expected 13,500 foreclosure notices this year in Memphis.
Counseling, legal work, a housing trust fund, education, improvements in laws, pressure on banks and getting the word out were among the ideas floated Monday at the meeting led by Webb Brewer, a lawyer with Memphis Area Legal Services and a member of the coalition.

In a decision that could affect gun control laws across the nation, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to carry a gun. It marks the first time in 70 years that the high court has focused on the meaning of the words "right to keep and bear arms" in the Second Amendment.

A new partnership between the court system and Nashville's Metro Transit Authority will allow jurors to ride the bus to the Chancery, Circuit and Criminal courts for free. Officials hope it will end up saving money for the government.

A former attorney general has joined with another high-profile lawyer to ask Michael Mukasey to release the Justice Department's secret legal opinions on torture and the war on terrorism. Former Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach and Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr. wrote a New York Times op-ed asking the new attorney general to release the opinions.

The American Bar Association Student Law Division plans to lobby legislators in order to change two financially burdensome components of the new College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007.
The group will target the tax consequences of loan forgiveness, as the sum that is forgiven would be taxed under the current plan; and
also work to change what some have referred to as the "marriage penalty."
Under the current law, the amount of monthly repayment for married borrowers is based on the combined adjusted gross income of the borrower and the borrower's spouse.

The TBA YLD has released a new resource to help volunteer attorneys provide meaningful legal services to victims of natural disasters. The 83-page document addresses a wide range of legal and social service issues disaster victims most frequently face. And unlike other resources that have been used in the past, this manual is Tennessee specific.